33. The Bakhshali Manuscript. 
By G. R. Kaye. 
The Bakhshali manuscript was found in 1881 near a 
are not know 
We are sidebte d to Dr. Hoernle for the stay we 
now possess of this interesting manuscript. In 1888 ub- 
lished ! facsimiles of several of the leaves together with the 
work ) 
tains would be of incalculable value, but in all probability his 
conclusious are wrong and a re-examination of the facts will lead 
to very different results. It is, therefore, proposed to scrutinize 
Dr. Hoernle’s arguments and to examine the manuscript itself 
and to attempt to determine its historical value. 
i, 
Dr. Hoernle rather confuses the two questions of the date 
of the composition of the work and the age of the manuscript. 
As to the former he says: ‘*I am disposed to believe that the 
composition must be referred to the earliest centuries of our 
era, and that it may date from the third or fourth century 
A.D" 
The reasons he gives for this conclusion are— 
(a) The work is in the Sloka measure which he says 
— out of fashion about the end of the fifth century. 
(b) ‘It is written in what used to be called the Gatha 
dialect, but which is rather the literary form of the ancient 
north-western Prakrit Pine Oecide It exhibits a strange 

¥ Thiaiane Pee 1888, p. 83f and p. 275f. See also vol. xii, 
. 89f., and Verhandlungen des VII arate Rsiawes Orientalisten-Con- 
gresses, Arische Section. Vienna, 1888, p. 127. 
